CUCUTA, Colombia - In a drab, sparsely furnished room in a brothel in Cucuta, Colombia, Daniela (not her real name), a Venezuelan in her 20s, described the grim reality of the work she says she must do to survive: meeting multiple men a day to support her sick daughter and her ailing mother.
"I don't like coming here with customers. I don't like the sex either. It's degrading," she said. "I'm the breadwinner for my family. My daughter is my everything."
Daniela began working in Cucuta in November 2024, driven by the economic collapse in Venezuela that made it impossible to earn enough at home. She started out as a restaurant waitress, earning 30,000 pesos (around $8) for 14-hour days -- far below what she needed to support her family.
A Venezuelan acquaintance told her about the bar. She walked in thinking it was a regular restaurant, but it turned out to be a prostitution venue. Daniela accepted the job because she had no other way to earn the money her family needed.
At the bar, women negotiate with customers before entering private rooms. Daniela earns 70,000 pesos for 20 to 25 minutes with a client, paying 10,000 pesos to the bar each time. She works around seven hours a day, suppressing her disgust to provide for her family.
Her daughter suffers from pulmonary stenosis, a congenital heart defect. She had surgery in Colombia in 2021, but her condition has worsened, requiring medication and monitoring. Her mother suffers from chronic joint pain and post-COVID-19 respiratory issues.
Daniela earns far more in Cucuta than she could make teaching kindergarten in Merida state, where she makes roughly $50 a month. Her monthly expenses for her daughter's care alone exceed 300,000 pesos, a figure impossible to meet at home.
Daniela said an NGO helped cover part of the cost of her daughter's surgery, while a wealthy friend paid the portion she herself was expected to contribute. That friend has since died.
"Last time my friend helped me," she said. "This time I will have to pay for it myself."
Prostitution in Cucuta is largely unregulated. Lawyer Alejandra Vera, who represents victims of sexual exploitation, said roughly 80 percent of sex workers in Colombia are Venezuelan, a figure even higher in border cities.
According to a local taxi driver, Cucuta has more than 20 brothels, and some women work on the streets.
Daniela described the job as dangerous. Some customers are drunk or on drugs, and threats or violence are not uncommon. She sometimes charges higher fees to deter aggressive clients. "You never know what kind of people will show up," she said.
Daniela said conditions in her home country have not improved, even after a rare U.S. military intervention in January 2026 that detained President Nicolas Maduro.
"If anything, government repression has intensified," she said, recalling a border crossing where a security officer questioned her about her smartphone.
"They're supposed to protect us, but they're doing the exact opposite. This is the product of a dictatorship."
She also recounted childhood hardships: losing her father at a young age, her mother losing the family home, and extreme scarcity.
"Even if we had money, there was no food to buy. You would push and shove at the supermarket just to get basic products," she said.
She recalled seeing a funeral where the body had been placed in a black bag because the family could not afford a coffin. "A black bag? It's practically garbage."
Despite the hardships, Daniela has not abandoned her ambitions. She has loved studying since childhood and is pursuing a master's degree in child psychology.
"I hope this job lasts six months, a year at most. But it's out of my control," she said. Her ultimate goal is a doctoral program and a career in early childhood education.
For now, Daniela balances survival with hope. Amid dim lights and locked doors, she works to provide care for her daughter while holding on to her dignity and dreams.
